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SFO lawyer appointed QC

11 April, 2014 | News Releases

Senior SFO barrister Stuart Alford will be sworn in as Queen’s Counsel on Monday, 14 April, bringing to three the number of SFO in-house QCs.

Mr Alford is Head of Division in the SFO’s Special Projects Group, overseeing a team of 70 case investigators and lawyers investigating the manipulation of LIBOR and other projects including the Barclays-Qatar investigation. He has been with the SFO since July 2012 and is a member of the SFO’s Management Board.

SFO Director David Green CB QC said:

“I am extremely pleased Stuart has been appointed to Queen’s Counsel. This is much deserved and underlines his contribution to the SFO, the challenge posed by cases we investigate and prosecute and the quality of staff the SFO is able to attract.”

Mr Alford was called to the bar in 1992 and has worked in national and international crime. Prior to joining the SFO his practice concentrated on fraud, mostly representing the CPS. Between 2008 and 2013 he was Chair of the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association, having been a Prosecutor for the United Nations between 2001 and 2003 and Legal Adviser to the Iraq High Tribunal during the trial of Saddam Hussein from 2005 to 2006.

On his appointment Stuart Alford said:

“I am hugely honoured to have been appointed to Queen’s Counsel. But it is not just my success; it is a recognition of the excellent work being undertaken at the SFO.”

Notes to Editors

1. Queen’s Counsel are senior lawyers – barristers or solicitors – who are recognized for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts and as experts in their field of law.This year’s list of Queen’s Counsel was announced on 19 February 2014 by the QC Selection Panel. Her Majesty the Queen has approved the appointment of 100 new Queen’s Counsel. www.qcapplications.org.uk/press

2. Stuart Alford joins the Director of the SFO, David Green CB QC and HH Geoffrey Rivlin QC, Adviser to the Director, as Queen’s Counsel at the SFO.

3. The Lord Chancellor will preside over the appointment ceremony, where the rank will formally be bestowed upon successful applicants at Westminster Hall on 14 April 2014.

4. Stuart Alford spent 20 years in private practice at 36 Bedford Row, London prior to joining the SFO. He is married to a circuit judge (HHJ de Bertodano), has four children and lives in London and Oxfordshire. His hobbies include opera, flying and bee-keeping.

5. If the Director of the SFO believes that there are reasonable grounds to suspect complex or serious fraud, bribery or corruption, he opens an investigation which is taken on by a multidisciplinary case team under the direction of a case controller in one of five divisions comprising Fraud, Bribery & Corruption and Special Projects.